It has long been the practice when painting or conducting various types of repairs while standing on a ladder, to hang a container for paint or tools from the top of a step ladder, or from a selected rung of an extension ladder, thus to enable the painter or repair person to hold the ladder with both hands while changing the position of the ladder from time to time. Such an arrangement also enables a painter to be able to hold onto the ladder with one hand, with the other hand being free to dip the brush into the paint and spread the paint on the surface adjacent which the ladder resides.
The practice of suspending a paint can or tool container from a selected rung of a ladder had the obvious disadvantage that the suspended can or container was behind the ladder and thus was inconvenient for use. Various proposals have been made to support the containers in more accessible positions, and one example is the teaching of the Chovan U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,980, which issued Mar. 26, 1968 That patent, entitled "Paint Can Safety Clamp," proposed a mechanism including adjustable pan engaging clamps that is arranged to engage and lock upon the step of a ladder.
The Lunden, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,957, entitled "Container Holding Attachment Insertable in a Tubular Ladder Rung," which issued Mar. 15, 1994, put forth the concept of providing a holder for a paint can or tool container involving a member to be inserted into the rung of a metal ladder, with the paint container supported at one side of such member.
None of these earlier arrangements has been particularly well received, with principal causes for their non-acceptance being their complexity, production costs, the inadequate support provided for paint cans and other containers, and their sheer bulk, latter fact making shipping costly and storage a problem.
It was in an effort to improve upon these prior art arrangements that the present invention was evolved.